Midwest Cup fills age gap

Eric Hjortness looked around a decade ago and saw a bleak landscape for amateur golf in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest.

Sure, every state has a State Amateur and many have match play championships, but college players have dominated those events in recent years. The guy who has a job, a mortgage and a family is at a competitive disadvantage.

"The two-day-a-week golfer is competing against the seven-day-a-week golfer, which is simply not feasible," said Hjortness, a former Wisconsin State Golf Association Match Play champion who lives in Menasha.

So Hjortness started his own tournament, devoted to amateurs 25 and older — guys who can still play but have day jobs and harbor no dreams of turning professional.

It has succeeded beyond anything he could have imagined.

The Culver's Midwest Cup, in its eighth year, will be held Friday through Sunday at Wild Horse Golf Club in Gothenburg, Neb.

Nine-man teams from eight states will compete in a 36-hole team competition folded into a 54-hole individual event. The teams are selected by respective state captains and include multiple State Amateur champions and United States Golf Association qualifiers.

The Midwest Cup started as an interstate competition between teams from Wisconsin and Illinois in 2006. It grew to include teams from four states in 2010, and the field doubled this year.

"The plan was to bring in six teams this year, with the hope that we could bring in eight by 2014," Hjortness said. "Two states (South Dakota and Missouri) got wind of it in January, called up and asked to participate.

"That was really quite a thrill and quite a compliment."

Minnesota, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa have joined the original two states.

The tournament has quickly grown in stature because the competition is top-notch and the venues are outstanding. Past sites include Geneva National, Erin Hills and Maple Bluff Country Club in Wisconsin; Cantigny Golf in Illinois and Hastings Country Club in Minnesota.

"When the players go to national amateur events, they talk," Hjortness said. "The guys who played in past years have told their friends this is a terrific event."

Culver's came on board as the title sponsor in 2012, giving the tournament additional credibility and financial stability. Culver's is in the second year of a three-year deal.

"We're expecting to give $5,000 to the Evans Scholars this year," Hjortness said. "That's unheard of for a golf tournament. Usually, events are run by the state association or the PGA or by a golf course that's trying to make money.

"We also give to the local high school golf team. So, for example, the Gothenburg High School girls and boys golf teams will be getting $1,000. That's very exciting because we're starting to have an impact above and beyond the championship."

The Wisconsin team includes Pat Boyle, a two-time State Amateur champion and member of the WSGA Hall of Fame; Matt Behm, the 2006 WSGA player of the year; Randy Warobick, a two-time Milwaukee District Match Play champion; and Steve Johnson, a former U.S. Mid-Amateur, U.S. Senior Amateur and U.S. Senior Open qualifier.

Hjortness, who qualified for the U.S. Amateur in 1992 and the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 1995, isn't playing this year because his responsibilities as the tournament's executive director have grown exponentially.

He said the success of the Midwest Cup was important because its participants otherwise have few opportunities to compete against their peers.

"In the first seven years of the event, not one single player in the event turned pro, nor would you have expected them to because of their age," he said. "This is true amateur golf which, to be honest, is dying.

"It's tough to beat the college kids and the pros at the State Open when you play two days a week. We're trying to fill a gap."

Hjortness' own résumé as a player is impressive. But he said he was prouder of the Midwest Cup's reputation as a top-notch event than any trophy he had won.

"I think everybody wants to make a difference," he said. "This is my legacy."